1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus to perform security management of data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a printer is an apparatus to print data transmitted from a computer or a scanner on a printing medium which typically is printing paper.
Recently, a mass storage device, such as a hard disk drive (hereinafter referred to as “HDD”), is installed in or is connected to the image forming apparatus to store data designated by a user to be printed. The data may be printed or deleted by a control panel of the image forming apparatus or a host computer if necessary.
Generally, the image forming apparatus is shared by several host computers through a network, such as in an office, such that many users can commonly use the image forming apparatus.
Since the image forming apparatus is used by many users through the network in an office and in other places, all the users can access data stored in the HDD of the same image forming apparatus without restriction. In other words, since items related to a user's privacy or security are exposed to many unknown persons, the conventional image forming apparatus has a security flaw such that information that should be secure is easily exposed to these unknown people.